How do you know if you are getting a good plea deal? | Syracuse ...

Plea deals play a very important role in federal and New York criminal courts. In fact, plea bargaining is a very central part of the criminal justice system, dictating convictions and sentences in many cases. However, many criminal defendants struggle during the plea negotiation process, unsure of whether a deal is favorable to them.

This is where intelligent legal advice comes into play. A competent and qualified criminal defense attorney should be working to negotiate a plea deal that is favorable to the defendant, as well as communicating to the defendant about whether it is wise to accept an offer or better to head to trial. Unfortunately, some criminal defense lawyers are in fact either bad at communicating these things to the accused, or are simply providing bad legal advice. A Supreme Court ruling issued last week is aimed at stopping this from happening.

Last Wednesday the Supreme Court ruled that criminal defendants have a constitutional right to effective legal representation during the plea process. This means that if poor legal advice causes a defendant to reject an advantageous plea bargain, before being convicted at trial, the defendant could then argue that he or she would have taken the plea with proper counsel.

Exactly how this will work in the court system is not yet known, but it could potentially lead to appeals, re-trials or a re-offering of the plea deal.

It remains vital for criminal defendants to seek a qualified criminal defense attorney as soon as possible after being arrested or charged with a crime. While this law may expand the rights of the accused, it will likely be very difficult for a defendant to claim post-conviction that he or she would have accepted a plea had a better lawyer been involved. It is wise to have a competent lawyer on board during that original plea process, rather than afterward.

Source: The New York Times, "Justices' Ruling Expands Rights of Accused in Plea Bargains," Adam Liptak, March 21, 2012

Source: http://www.syracusecriminallawblog.com/2012/03/how-do-you-know-if-you-are-getting-a-good-plea-deal.shtml

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